Chapter Text
It’s not like Will thought he’d be exempt from the So Who Do You Like treatment when he told all his friends that he was gay, but being treated like everybody else was a lot more appealing before being treated like everybody else started to mean being incessantly harassed for your pathetic lack of a love life by your closest friends.
He loves his friends. Really. He’s glad Max has recovered and caught up on schoolwork enough to do her senior year with the Party, and school in Lenora wasn’t the same without Mike, Dustin, and Lucas. He’d lay down and die for any of them; on more than one occasion, he almost has.
That doesn't mean he doesn't want to bind and gag them all sometimes.
“There must be someone you have your eye on,” Dustin says, and Will has a heated internal debate over whether or not it's worth it to dump his milk carton over Dustin’s head or if that would just get him in trouble with the janitor. “This school is full of hot guys, you included—it’s just a matter of finding the right one!”
“Guys, please, can we talk about literally anything else?” Will huffs, not that it mattered the last three times he said it. “I promise if my love life has any developments,” which it won't, “you'll all be the first to know.”
“Wow, deflect much?” Max says, grinning. “Come on, who’s the guy? Is it someone we know?”
“There's no one!” Will throws his hands up. “And there will continue to be no one!”
“Hey, don't think that way,” Lucas says encouragingly. He snags a carrot stick from Max’s lunch. “You won't be single forever, dude.”
“What about that new kid Elijah in our physics class?” Mike says, elbowing Will. “He’s cute, right?”
“I don’t even know who you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, he sits near the back window,” Lucas says. “He’s cute.”
“Right?” Mike gestures, like Lucas deciding that some new kid is cute makes it the gospel truth. When Lucas—the only person at this table in a long-term relationship with a girl—became the authority on cute boys, Will has no idea. “See, thank you!”
“Maybe you should go out with him then,” Will says, rolling his eyes. With a reference point, he can sort of picture the guy they’re talking about, and actually that guy is sort of cute, but he’s not about to give them the satisfaction of admitting it.
Mike clutches his chest like he's just been shot. “Would if I could, Byers, but unfortunately my good looks are wasted on women. Anyway, we’re just trying to help.”
“I don't need help,” Will reiterates. “What I want is to not be talking about this.”
“Oh, Elijah Rosen?” Dustin asks. “He’s in my history class, I think he just moved from Chicago. Isn’t he Jewish?”
“Why would anyone move here just for their senior year?” Max wonders aloud.
“How could we possibly know if he’s Jewish?” Lucas adds with an eyebrow raised.
“And how is it relevant?” Mike says judgmentally.
“He introduced himself by saying he was moving back to live with his dad, who’s the rabbi, and it’s relevant because I bet your mom would love it if you dated a Jewish guy,” Dustin says, smirking at Will. “Especially the rabbi’s son, huh? Huh?”
Oh, Rosen. Rabbi Rosen is a name in the depths of Will’s memory; they haven’t gone to temple in a long, long time, and even before dad left, they only went for the major holidays. He didn’t know the rabbi had a son his age out of state. Not that it matters; cute or not, Jewish or not, the guy is still a stranger. A probably-heterosexual stranger, at that.
“My mom doesn't care about that. And neither do I,” Will says. Anyway, dating the son of a rabbi sounds kind of like a nightmare. “And it doesn't matter because I don’t care about Elijah Rosen and my love life is fine now can we please change the subject?”
It's looking like Max is gearing up to ask another Elijah Rosen question. If she does, Will may have no choice but to kick her under the table until she falls off the bench.
Thankfully, before she can, Lucas interjects, glancing at Will. “Hey, did anyone do the English homework? ‘Cause I sorta forgot to do the reading.”
Will’s shoulders sag in relief as the conversation reroutes to assigned readings and neglected homework. He shoots Lucas a grateful look, and Lucas offers him a small smile in return.
It's not that he doesn't think Elijah Rosen is cute—he is, as are plenty of other guys at Hawkins High. A few of them are even nice to Will, which Will finds broadly suspicious but significantly more tolerable than being bullied. All of them are definitely straight, but that's not the issue either. In fact, in a way, it's better. At least when they're straight, Will doesn't need to entertain the possibility that things could go further if he only had the guts to pursue them. Because yeah, if he asks out the wrong guy, he’s a pariah faster than you can say “queer,” but that presupposes that Will would ever ask out a guy. Any guy.
Which, suffice to say, he has no intention of doing, ever.
When the bell rings, Lucas and Will walk together to their lockers, exchanging their morning textbooks for the afternoon ones.
“Hey, sorry about lunch,” Lucas says. “We were just teasing, but— still, sorry.”
Will shakes his head. “It's fine. Thanks for coming to my rescue.”
“But I mean, you know it's true, right?” Lucas nudges him. “You won't be single forever. You're awesome and smart and funny and super sexy.” Will blushes. “And I'm on the basketball team, so trust me, I'm around super sexy guys all the time.”
“You're even starting to become one,” Will deadpans.
Lucas shoulder-checks him just hard enough to make Will stumble, laughing. “Ha, ha. My point is, eventually someone's gonna notice, and they’ll wise up and ask you out. You can't be the only gay dude at this school.”
They shut their lockers and start heading for English class. There’s enough overlapping chatter from the students flooding the hall on their way to fifth period that Will isn't worried about being overheard. Hiding in plain sight has its moments. “That's nice of you to say, but it doesn't make a difference. There could be a hundred guys like me and I would still be single.”
“What are you talking about? Were you even listening to me? You're a catch!”
Will smiles. Lucas is so effusive with his praise. It's no wonder Max likes him. (Well, it's some wonder, since Max’s usual response to being complimented is to make a face and a snarky remark, but Lucas has this effect where you just want him to say nice things about you.)
“Look, I appreciate it,” Will says. “But it's not just about finding someone. I’ve never been on a date. I don't even know what people do on dates.”
“So?”
“So…” Will’s cheeks burn. “What if I do it wrong?”
“You can't ‘do’ dating wrong,” Lucas says.
“No, you can't do dating wrong, because you're charming without even trying and super sexy,” which makes Lucas laugh, “and besides, you and Max got together before high school, before we were supposed to be good at this stuff. We're seniors now. Most people have experience and I don't— I don't want to embarrass myself. Especially not in front of some…some random guy.”
“Some guy like the new kid everyone was just talking about?”
“What is it with you guys and Elijah Rosen? And no, I mean any guy,” Will says firmly. The English classroom is approaching, inside of which this conversation can't continue, so Will lowers his voice. “It's just different when you’re gay. If, I dunno, if Dustin goes out with a girl and it doesn't go well, he just finds a different girl. If I go out with a guy and I make one wrong move, he could tell everyone— anything, and there'd be nothing I could do. I can't risk it.”
Lucas takes in Will's words as they enter the classroom and claim two open desks near the back, one in front of the other. There's another minute to the bell, so Will busies himself pulling out Heart of Darkness, which he, unlike Lucas, read as assigned, but did not enjoy. Lucas turns around to face Will.
“I never thought about it like that,” he says. There's a look on his face Will has seen a few times, mostly during D&D after being presented with a complicated puzzle: a determination to solve the problem.
“It's not a big deal,” Will answers, shrugging. He doesn't want to be a problem for Lucas to solve. He just wants to drop the subject. “It's just Hawkins. It'll be different in college.” I hope. “Right?”
Lucas frowns. The problem-solving look does not abate. “...Right.”
The bell rings. Lucas reluctantly turns back around. Will studies the back of his head for a moment, and then Mr. Amir stands up from his desk and greets them all by asking how they liked this week’s reading, and Will puts the whole thing out of his mind.
When the class ends, and the bell ushers them out to sixth period, Lucas immediately falls into lockstep with Will and says, “Okay, I’ve been thinking about your dating problem, and I have a solution.”
Will groans. He knew he shouldn’t have trusted that look. “Please, no.”
“No, no, just listen! You're nervous about dating because you’re never been on a date with a guy. But I’m a guy, and I’ve been dating Max for like four years. Or, well, two, or maybe three if you count— the point is, a long time. I have tons of experience, and you won’t have to worry about embarrassing yourself since it’s just me. It’s perfect.”
Will’s brain crashes like an Atari unplugged mid-game. “Uh, what? What are you talking about?”
Lucas stops Will, pulling him off to the side to avoid the stream of sixth-period-bound students. He’s completely sincere. “Go out with me,” he says. Before Will’s jaw can make contact with the floor, Lucas amends, “I mean, not actually, but you can practice with me. I’ll show you what dating is like, and you can practice dating a guy.”
“Absolutely not,” Will says.
“Why not?”
“Because—” Will splutters. “Because you’re not gay! And you have a girlfriend!”
“Did you hear the part where I said it’d be pretend? I’ll even tell Max, I’m sure she’d love to hear that I’m helping you out.”
“Lucas, I can’t ask you to do this.”
“You’re not. I’m offering,” Lucas says, and damn his irresistibly earnest eyes. “C’mon, this is the perfect solution. Let me help you.”
Will should say no, but the thing is that he can’t come up with a good enough reason. Lucas is right: this is a perfect solution. Lucas is a guy. Lucas has relationship experience. And Lucas won’t judge him if he sucks at dating, because they’re not actually dating.
“Fine,” Will grumbles. Lucas whoops. “But I have to go to class, so we’ll talk about it later, alright?”
“Totally,” Lucas says, turning to go. “I’ll call you tonight after practice. Channel five on the walkie so no one snoops?”
“Yeah, okay. Oh, Lucas—” He grabs Lucas’s arm and Lucas stops to listen. Reddening, Will says, “Just. Don’t tell anyone. I mean, Max is okay, but not—”
“Mike or Dustin,” Lucas finishes, nodding. “No problem, dude.”
“Thanks,” Will says. He releases Lucas, who gives him a last smile and then gets swept away in a current of classmates going the opposite direction.
Will sighs, hefts his backpack, and starts towards his sixth period.
✦ ✦ ✦
Max hangs around after school to watch Lucas’s basketball practice. The flutter that still erupts in Lucas’s chest when he sees her on the bleachers is unbelievable. Mostly she uses the time to work on homework or the friendship bracelet she's making for El, but still. She doesn't have to stay, but she does anyway, just so she can be there when Lucas emerges from the locker room afterwards.
The guys on the team all call Max Lucas’s “girl,” but they really don’t understand the dynamic. Max is Lucas’s girlfriend, but Lucas is Max’s guy.
“I saw that three-pointer,” Max tells him today. He’s walking his bike while she accompanies him on her skateboard, rolling at the pace Lucas is walking, which Lucas has always found to be right on the line between patronizing and endearing, as with many things Max does, not least of which includes this compliment she’s giving him. “Are you actually the best player on the team? ‘Cause that’s a turn-off for me, I’m not really into winners.”
“Uh, I’ve been the best,” Lucas says. “You’re dating a winner whether you like it or not, dude.”
“Ugh,” Max says, pretending to full-body shudder. “I think I liked you better when you were a benchwarmer.”
“I think they did too,” Lucas says. He’d still be blacklisted if Andy and his cronies hadn’t graduated in the spring, and even without them, he’s pretty sure it was only his senior status and historic game-winning basket that won him a spot back on the roster. “Hopefully they don’t bench me again, but after the last two years? I’m lucky they let me rejoin the team.”
Max frowns and reaches out to poke him. Lucas admires her balance. “Hey. I was kidding. Screw those guys, you are the best player on that shitty team. You don’t just deserve to play, you deserve to be captain.”
“Yeah, that would’ve been a non-starter even if I hadn’t quit last year.”
“Well, that’s their loss. I didn’t see any of them sink a three-pointer today.”
“It’s really not a big deal. I’m just glad I get to play,” Lucas says. He appreciates that she’s so willing to go to bat for him, but Lucas long since learned that he has to pick his battles. “So you watched some this time?”
“Eh, I finished the bracelet, had nothing better to do,” Max says, smiling as she says it. She pulls the bracelet from her back pocket. “Think she’ll like it?”
“She’s gonna love it,” Lucas promises. The chevron pattern alternates between vibrant strings of blue, yellow, and purple—all of El’s favorite colors. Lucas is unclear on whether there’s some kind of holiday or event coming up that he’s totally blanking on, or if Max is just doing this for fun, but he knows it’ll be a slam dunk for El, whose love for presents is just barely eclipsed by a love for handmade trinkets. “How come you never make me anything like this?”
“You want a friendship bracelet?”
“It has to be called that?” Lucas laces their fingers together, even though it’s hard to walk a bike one-handed. “It can’t be a relationship bracelet? A boyfriend bracelet? A most-talented-basketball-player bracelet?”
Max snorts at that. “I can make you one if you want. I didn’t think you were really a jewelry guy.”
“I’m an anything guy when it comes to you,” Lucas says. “I’m a Max guy.”
Max breathes a laugh. “Alright, Romeo.” She halts and flips her skateboard up, then tucks it under her arm without letting go of Lucas’s hand. “I’ll bring my string to school tomorrow and you can pick out some colors.”
“No, surprise me,” Lucas says. “I trust you.”
“Well, there’s your first mistake,” Max says.
They walk in easy quiet for a little bit, enjoying the weather. Lucas is just debating the best way to bring up the dating thing he pitched to Will when Max says, “Whatcha thinkin’ about?”
“How do you do that?” Lucas marvels.
“Do what?”
“Read my mind. You always know when I’m thinking something.”
“It’s a pretty safe bet, since you’re usually thinking something,” Max deflects. “Anyway, I know you. You have this energy. Like you want to ask me a question but you don’t know how to ask it.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Lucas says. “You’re straight-up psychic. It’s freaky.”
“Wow, romantic,” Max deadpans. She nudges him. “So what’s up?”
“It’s about Will,” Lucas says. “I think our teasing really got to him at lunch.”
Max screws up her face. “Shit.”
“Yeah, so we were talking, and…he was saying it’s really different trying to date when you’re gay, like, when you’re a guy who wants to date guys, it’s a lot harder. Especially here. It’s a lot riskier. And he’s all stressed, ‘cause he’s never even been on a date, so he’s nervous. So I offered to help him practice.”
“Practice…”
“Practice dating. A guy. Me,” Lucas overexplains. “Like, take him on pretend dates and give him some pointers, tell him stuff you should and shouldn’t do on dates, that kinda thing.”
“You offered to date him,” Max repeats. Then, slowly, “For him to practice.”
“Yeah, obviously not for real, just so he can know what it’s like. For when he actually wants to date someone.”
Max tilts her head, looking thoughtful. Her curls rustle in the wind. “That’s…actually a great idea. Yeah. I love it.”
“Right? Thank you! Will thought it was crazy.”
“He thought it was crazy but he agreed to it anyway?”
“Yeah, but only on the condition that you knew about it and said it was okay.”
“Well, you have my enthusiastic permission,” Max says, grinning. “It’s kind of genius, and I’d much rather Will practice dating with you than with Mike or Dustin. Yikes.”
“You can’t tell them,” Lucas says seriously. “You can’t tell anyone, not even El.”
“What? Not even El?”
“Nobody,” Lucas says, shaking his head. “You know how Will is. I think we embarrassed him a little and I don’t want to make it worse. I’m trying to help his confidence, not destroy it.”
“Fine, my lips are zipped,” Max says. “He knows we were just teasing, right? We do the same thing to Mike and Dustin all the time. It’d be weirder not to tease him just ‘cause he’s gay.”
“I know,” Lucas says. He thinks back to lunch, to the defensive hunch of Will’s shoulders. To the defeat in his voice afterwards when he said it’s just different when you’re gay. But maybe that’s only part of it. “It’s not because he’s gay, it’s because he’s Will. You know?”
“Yeah, okay,” Max says. “Well, I promise not to spill. Tell Will to be gentle with my boyfriend.”
“Very funny,” says Lucas.
Only after the third repetition of “Will, do you copy?” does Will finally answer his walkie.
“Sorry, yes, I copy,” he says, tinny through the radio. “I started doing homework and forgot to switch channels. How was practice?”
“It was good. Listen, I talked to Max. She thinks it’s a great idea. And I made her promise not to tell,” Lucas assures him. “Even El.”
“Thanks,” Will says. “Yeah, I mean. It’s not that big a deal. I’ll probably tell El. I just feel like if Mike and Dustin find out, I’ll never hear the end of it. They’ll harass me about Elijah Rosen until I die.”
“Wow, someone’s been thinking about Elijah,” Lucas says, teasing. He shifts to lie on his stomach diagonally across his bed, crushing a pillow under his arms. The walkie is tight in his grip.
“That was clearly an example—shut up,” Will says. “So…this plan of yours.”
“This extremely good plan of mine,” Lucas corrects him. The nice thing about phoning it in for English class was that he could declare the whole lesson a wash, and sitting in the back all but guaranteed he wouldn’t get called on. He’d spent the whole period ruminating on how to help Will instead. Mr. Amir may not call that a productive use of his time, but Mr. Amir is also making them read a book that Will informed him at lunch is such a drag it makes Shakespeare sound like Star Wars—which Lucas found impressively evocative for someone who claims his only creative medium is visual art—so what does he know.
“This extremely good plan of yours,” Will responds. Lucas can just hear the eyeroll. “Do you want to, I don’t know, tell me anything more about it?”
“Sure,” Lucas says, making a face even though Will can’t see him. “What are you doing tonight?”
“Uh…homework? Studying?”
Lucas hums, glancing at the clock before speaking into the walkie again. “Okay, well, if you were Max, I would probably say, ‘Wanna come over and study together?’ so…do you wanna come over and study together?”
There’s a pause. Then Will’s voice comes back. “Isn’t that just a cover for making out?”
Well. He has Lucas there.
He hits the push-to-talk and says, “I mean…technically, sometimes. But obviously that isn’t what we would be doing. We can actually study, just…study the art of dating. I’ll make flash cards if you want.”
“Flash cards about dating,” Will says flatly.
It sounds pretty stupid when Will says it. Not that Lucas would have the first clue what to put on dating flash cards. Everything he knows about relationships, he learned by doing. There’s no textbook on it; there’s no lesson plan Lucas can draw up. That’s why his plan is so ingenious, because it means Will can learn the same way Lucas did: by experience.
“You know what, screw studying,” he says. “I’ll meet you outside your house in half an hour. Be ready.”
“What? Be ready for what? I have homework, I wasn’t kidding about that.”
“You can do it after. Half an hour! Over and out.”
Lucas shuts the antenna of his walkie before Will can protest more, which he no doubt would. He’s on a mission to get Will out of his own way, and sometimes that means not letting him get in the way in the first place.
As instructed, Will is waiting on his front porch when Lucas bikes up thirty minutes later, sketching in the dirt with a twig, which he drops as he stands.
“Are you gonna tell me what we’re doing?” Will asks, raising an eyebrow. “Or is it customary to be kidnapped for a date?”
“It is when I’m your date,” Lucas says, grinning. Will shakes his head but doesn’t argue. “Grab your bike and let’s go.”
“I can’t be out late,” Will says. “My mom will freak, and I actually do have homework.”
“Will, I’m going to tell you something that may be difficult to hear,” Lucas says seriously. “When you’re in a relationship, sometimes you have to sacrifice good grades for the greater good.”
Will laughs and mounts his bike. He has a backpack on, but at least it’s not his school one. If Lucas had to tell him not to bring homework on a date, they’d be in worse shape than he thought.
“In that case, maybe I really am doomed to be single forever,” he says. “Or at least until after college.”
“Will Byers, I am going to get you a boyfriend if I have to clone myself to do it,” Lucas vows. “Now stop worrying about homework and get a move on. And I promise to have you back by ten. I’m a gentleman.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really.”
“And Max would agree?”
They’re still trading jabs as they head down Mirkwood. Lucas leads, but doesn’t pull too far ahead; he’s not a huge fan of letting Will on a bike out of his sight, and it seems like Will shares the sentiment, or at least he doesn’t question Lucas.
In a dream world, Lucas would be driving, but he still doesn’t have his license, a shortcoming he happily blames on Vecna at every opportunity, even though the truth is he could have gotten it last year if he hadn’t been so preoccupied helping Max get rehabilitated and to viable senior standing in time for senior year. The second worst part of not having a license, Lucas would say, is how much shit he takes from Erica about the fact that her senior brother can’t drive them both to school, as if mom and dad would let him have the car all day even if he could drive.
The first worst part of not having a license is obviously the part where he has to bike everywhere. But at least the weather is still decent. With any luck, by the time winter descends, he’ll at least have a permit so he can drive himself around. Erica will be expected to grovel in order to get a ride anywhere. As karma.
Anyway, the place he plans to take Will isn’t exactly reachable by car, so biking it is.
It’s a ten minute ride at their pace, just long enough to find a rhythm before abandoning it. Will doesn’t ask where they’re going again, but he must have figured out the destination from the route, because he doesn’t seem surprised when Lover’s Lake comes into view. Skeptical, maybe, but not surprised.
“Hear me out,” Lucas says, before Will can start on a tirade about how cliché this is or whatever. “I thought about what you said, how much harder it is to date when you’re gay, especially here. Yeah, the movies is a classic date, or sharing a shake at Melvald’s, pizza at Hawkins Slice, whatever, but that stuff is in public. Don’t get me wrong—you could still get away with it, I mean, we do that stuff all the time. But…”
He gestures, turning to look at the lake. It’s speckled with the night sky’s reflection, like a dark mirror. A breeze ripples over the surface. Water laps gently where it meets the shore. Besides the two of them, and the low hum of insects from the woods, it’s perfectly quiet. “Here, you have privacy. And that seems like something you might want.”
It takes a second to tear his gaze from the water, but when he does, he finds Will staring at him, no longer skeptical.
“That’s…really considerate,” he says slowly. “Yeah. Um. Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of sense.”
Lucas smiles. “Sweet. Nailed it.”
Chuckling, Will leaves his bike and backpack by a tree and comes to join Lucas at the edge of the water. “So we’re here. Now what? We just hang out?”
“I mean, basically, yeah,” Lucas says. “Most of dating is just hanging out.”
Will hums his intrigue. Lucas sits on the fallen trunk he remembers hiding behind, what feels like a lifetime ago, watching Nancy, Robin, Steve, and Eddie paddle out to Watergate in Reefer Rick’s busted motorboat.
It’s kinda crazy that the tree is still here. Their town cracked like creme brulée, and Hell spilled out, and yet somehow this hunk of wood is intact, two years later—a little more rotted, but sturdy enough to hold the both of them.
When Hawkins broke, it felt like everything broke with it. It’s just strange, to see proof that not everything did.
“This is a nice spot,” Will says, kicking his heels out so the tips of his black Vans point skyward. Lucas never noticed Will wearing Vans before. Must be Max’s influence. They suit him. “I can see why you’d take someone here on a date.”
“See? You’re welcome for my genius.”
“Okay, but— it can’t all be just hanging out,” Will says. “We can hang out, because we’re friends, but if I was on a date, I’d have to, like…make conversation. Be interesting.”
“You’re great at conversation,” Lucas says. “And you are interesting.”
“Not really.”
“Will. The hell, yes you are.”
“It’s interesting that I was the vessel for an evil wizard,” Will says dully.
Lucas whacks him and Will recoils, lifting his hands to protect his face.
“Just because we’re at a lake does not mean you need to start fishing for compliments,” Lucas says, shouldering him just a little harder than necessary, so that Will has to dig his heels in to keep from toppling. “You know a ton of interesting stuff. You're a D&D master—”
“Right, Hawkins’ favorite subject—”
“And you’re an artist, which is automatically hot. People love artists.”
Will wraps his arms around himself. “You’ve officially lost it.”
“I’m serious, dude. Art is sexy.”
“That doesn’t make me sexy.” Will’s cheeks turn pink, which could be from the cool night air, but probably isn’t.
It does make Lucas notice that Will is curled inward, rubbing his bare arms. He probably wasn’t expecting to be outside this long. It’s early autumn, the days still clinging to that late-summer warmth, but after sunset it’s getting chilly enough for a second layer if you're planning to stay outdoors.
Lucas shucks his varsity jacket and says, “By the way, I messed up.”
“What?”
“I didn’t tell you we’d be outside,” Lucas says, handing over his jacket. “That’s bad date etiquette. But good date etiquette is offering your jacket to your date if they seem cold, which you do.”
“It’s okay, I’m fine.”
Lucas sighs. He shakes out the jacket and drapes it over Will’s shoulders. “It’s also bad date etiquette to refuse the jacket, dude.”
“But you’ll be cold,” Will protests. Despite that, he grabs the edges of the jacket and pulls it around himself. “We’re not actually on a date.”
“You’re still actually my friend, and I don’t want you to be cold,” Lucas says. “Anyway, I’m good. I run hot. And like I said, it’s my fault you didn’t bring a jacket in the first place.”
Will ducks his head. He smiles. The jacket fits him well. “Fine, then thanks.”
“Anyway, like I was saying. You’re got a lot going for you, man. You just need to stop worrying so much and be yourself.”
“I can do that with you,” Will says, sighing as he gazes across the water. “I already know you like me.”
“Eh, you’re okay.”
This time Will shoves him. He’s stronger than Lucas anticipated, and Lucas has to flail to keep his balance on the log. They’re both laughing while he rights himself.
“Don’t you worry,” he says, clapping a hand on Will’s knee. “We’ll keep practicing until you could make small talk in your sleep. You’ll be a pro dater in no time.”